How does Harry Brown represent young people?
- Pitbulls
- Drugs
- Guns
- Knives
- Violence
- Hoodies
- Location - impact on their representation and life
- Sexual confrontation
- Gender representation
- Male dominantion, treatment towards women
- Sexism
- Revenge
- Colloquial language/swearing
- Territory
- Binary opposition: good vs bad - Harry Brown/Police/Gags - Social classes
- Age
- Dark lighting/dark characters
Hoodies strike fear in British cinema
'Guardian 2009'
How is suggests young people are represented
- Unemotional
- Inact of feelings
- Reflect them being monsters
- Challenge equilibruim
The links to horror genre
- Teens are now 'baddies' in horror films
- Non fiction is more scarry than fiction
- Real life murderers
The significance of social class
- Living on a council estate shapes a bad character
- Surrounded by violence will shape individuals
- Survival is harder/resort to more violence to live
- Prey on higer class people
- Hegemony - Ruling of the higher class/wanting to make others believe the same
- ASBO's, media coverage
The implications of the representations
- Fear as a nation
- Moral panic
- Grouping people together/generalising youths as 'thugs'
- Begin to act like the stereotype
Eden Lake: 2008, James Watkins
How are Jenny and Steve (the main couple) represented?
Jenny and Steve are represented as a normal middle aged couple. Middle class, average couple, loving and caring couple. They stand up to the thugs but still stay calm. Throughout the trailer you can see them becoming more scared and frightened of the youths. By the end of the trailer the main character in the couple is Jenny, suggesting that Steve has been killed, making the adults seem weaker as now the male is gone and Jenny is alone to fight for herself.
How is this contrasted with the representation of the other characters?
The thugs are a lot younger than the couple and there are many more of them, instantly showing that they will have the upper hand if trouble started. They way the youths dress shows the difference in social class, and they way that they speak and use colloquial language shows they will be of a lower class background and environment. The gang of youths have a vicious, fighting rotweiler which shows danger and their weapon.
How important is the issue of social class?
The issue of social class in these films is one of the most important factors to consider. The youth's backgrounds and environment will shape all of their characters and if they have been brought up in a run down, council estate with violence being normal around them, then they will grow up to believe that this is allowed and right. This will then shape their actions for later life as this is what they have been brought up with all their lives so far. One of the youths carries a knife in his pocket, showing that he is prepared to use violence easily. They youths can see that Jenny and Steve are in 'their territory' and so will be protective.
How are young people represented?
In Eden Lake, the young people are represented as violent, disrespectful thugs. They are shown as hanging around in gangs, in quite secluded areas in order to start trouble with anyone. They are portrayed as being fightening and making others feel threatened and uncomfortable. Reflects middle class fear of working youth and their perceived threat to hegemony.
Normality - Dominant ideologies
Todorov's theory - Disruption to the equilibrium
Attack the Block: 2011, Jor Cornish
How are the youths represented?
- In gangs
- Bandannas around their faces
- Colloquial language used within the gang
- Territory, her going in to their land
- Not as treatening, they were scared of the explosion
- Weak pack
- Making fun of other youths who act like this seriously
- Contrast to other 'hoodie horror films'
Harry Brown film review
Rotton Tomato
Academy Award nominee Daniel Barber (The Tonto Woman) makes his feature directorial debut with this gritty critique on contemporary British society starring Michael Caine as an elderly shut-in who's spurred to action by a senseless act of violence. Harry Brown (Caine) resides in a desolate public-housing apartment block as his sickly wife lies dying in a local hospital. He spends most of his days in solitude, only getting out to play the occasional game of chess at a nearby pub with his best friend, Leonard (David Bradley). The days of basic human decency seem to be a thing of the past, because in recent years barbarous drug dealers and gangsters have overtaken the dilapidated complex. Killing is a way of life for these young thugs, and as a result overburdened detectives Frampton (Emily Mortimer) and Hicock (Charlie Creed-Miles) are essentially relegated to knocking on doors and notifying parents when their children have been killed in the latest fracas, instead of investigating the crimes and jailing the guilty parties. When Leonard is murdered just feet from his own apartment, former Royal Marine Harry utilizes the skills he learned while fighting the IRA to take on the aggressive chavs who have intimidated the police into inaction. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
I ended up feeling a bit sorry for Michael Caine by the time this hateful vigilante flick set in modern-day London came to a close. Did the old boy know what he was getting into? The funny thing is that ‘Harry Brown’, bar a violent prologue, begins fairly soberly, even reflectively, as if the makers were thinking more of ‘All or Nothing’ than ‘Death Wish’. Harry (Caine, below) is a widower who shuffles around a crumbling housing estate with only fellow army vet Leonard (David Bradley) for company. But life changes when Leonard falls prey to the hoodies who linger in the local underpass. When distraught Harry gets short shrift from the police (badly written, and poorly played by Emily Mortimer and Charlie Creed-Miles), he decides to take the law into his own hands and drives this already wobbly wagon straight into hysterical genre territory. By now, all you can do is sigh, laugh and try not to get upset at the stupidity of it all.
Although it takes a while before ‘Harry Brown’ shows its true colours, there’a a vulgar whiff from the off: in the first seconds of this debut from director Daniel Barber (who, technically, shows a fair amount of talent) we watch grainy mobile footage of a kid on a scooter as he confronts a young mum and shoots her dead before he comes a cropper himself on the road. It’s horrible stuff, but there must be a good reason for it, surely?
As it turns out, this scene is a random first glimpse of a warped portrait of our city that’s straight out of the Daily Mail – a place where your granny might get shot, stabbed or battered at every turn. It’s also the first hint of the sick ideology of the film, in which ill-informed pessimism is bolstered by childish ideas of revenge. There’s always a punishment around the corner, not only to avenge bad behaviour but also to give the makers sneaky licence to indulge in violence. As narrative – and moral – maths go, this is a cooking of the books that sidesteps any smart commentary on real life.
Although it takes a while before ‘Harry Brown’ shows its true colours, there’a a vulgar whiff from the off: in the first seconds of this debut from director Daniel Barber (who, technically, shows a fair amount of talent) we watch grainy mobile footage of a kid on a scooter as he confronts a young mum and shoots her dead before he comes a cropper himself on the road. It’s horrible stuff, but there must be a good reason for it, surely?
As it turns out, this scene is a random first glimpse of a warped portrait of our city that’s straight out of the Daily Mail – a place where your granny might get shot, stabbed or battered at every turn. It’s also the first hint of the sick ideology of the film, in which ill-informed pessimism is bolstered by childish ideas of revenge. There’s always a punishment around the corner, not only to avenge bad behaviour but also to give the makers sneaky licence to indulge in violence. As narrative – and moral – maths go, this is a cooking of the books that sidesteps any smart commentary on real life.
Attack the Block review
From Time Out London
It’s always worrying when an artist you admire in one field decides to branch out into another. Bob Dylan’s painting career, Russell Crowe’s band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, the novels of William Shatner – are all destined for the trash pile of cultural history. But on the strength of his feature debut, ‘Attack the Block’, it’s already clear that, in a decade’s time, no one will even remember that Joe Cornish used to be a comedian.
At first glance, it looks as though Cornish has set the bar low for his first movie. A storyline inspired by the ’80s genre movies he grew up with (and lovingly parodied on ‘The Adam and Joe Show’), tied to a currently popular film fad – the London yoof movie – and set literally on his doorstep, ‘Attack the Block’ could easily have been a lazy, smug sci-fi parody: ‘Morons from Outer Space’ goes gangsta.
But, like the aliens that rampage through a Brixton tower block, this is an entirely unexpected beast. An unrecognisably well-spoken Jodie Whittaker plays Sam, the jobbing nurse whose decision to move into a south London estate backfires when she’s first mugged by teen thugs, then chased by marauding monsters. But Whittaker, and comic relief Nick Frost as weed dealer Ron, are merely the audience-friendly commercial face of ‘Attack the Block’. The real stars are those thugs, led by taciturn wannabe player Moses (John Boyega, stunning), whose decision to tool up and defend their turf kicks the plot into high gear.
And this is an astonishingly fast-moving film. Cornish doesn’t do eerie build-ups or character-establishing dialogue scenes: it’s pedal to the metal from the word go, and we learn on the hoof about Moses’s family issues, Ron’s business troubles and the complex relationships within the gang.
This can make the opening scenes confusing: there are a lot of characters to keep up with. But it pays off in pure adrenaline: we’re never given a second to settle, and the result is exhilarating. Gradually characters emerge, and it’s here that Cornish’s skill as writer and director becomes evident. These kids start out as caricatures – the moody leader, the speccy geek, the mouth – but the respect shown to them is hugely refreshing, and their progressions are heartfelt and wholly believable: Shane Meadows would be proud.
All of which elevates ‘Attack the Block’ from fun creature-feature throwback to this year’s unmissable British movie, and Cornish from just another geek-turned-filmmaker to a major talent: if he can strike a similar balance between sympathy, insight and crowd-pleasing thrills in future projects, his status is assured.
‘Attack the Block’ isn’t perfect – the aliens are a tad unremarkable and the final blowout never hits the frenzied peak it might have – but it’s hard to imagine British audiences having more fun in a cinema this year. Now, who’s going to fund the Adam Buxton movie?
At first glance, it looks as though Cornish has set the bar low for his first movie. A storyline inspired by the ’80s genre movies he grew up with (and lovingly parodied on ‘The Adam and Joe Show’), tied to a currently popular film fad – the London yoof movie – and set literally on his doorstep, ‘Attack the Block’ could easily have been a lazy, smug sci-fi parody: ‘Morons from Outer Space’ goes gangsta.
But, like the aliens that rampage through a Brixton tower block, this is an entirely unexpected beast. An unrecognisably well-spoken Jodie Whittaker plays Sam, the jobbing nurse whose decision to move into a south London estate backfires when she’s first mugged by teen thugs, then chased by marauding monsters. But Whittaker, and comic relief Nick Frost as weed dealer Ron, are merely the audience-friendly commercial face of ‘Attack the Block’. The real stars are those thugs, led by taciturn wannabe player Moses (John Boyega, stunning), whose decision to tool up and defend their turf kicks the plot into high gear.
And this is an astonishingly fast-moving film. Cornish doesn’t do eerie build-ups or character-establishing dialogue scenes: it’s pedal to the metal from the word go, and we learn on the hoof about Moses’s family issues, Ron’s business troubles and the complex relationships within the gang.
This can make the opening scenes confusing: there are a lot of characters to keep up with. But it pays off in pure adrenaline: we’re never given a second to settle, and the result is exhilarating. Gradually characters emerge, and it’s here that Cornish’s skill as writer and director becomes evident. These kids start out as caricatures – the moody leader, the speccy geek, the mouth – but the respect shown to them is hugely refreshing, and their progressions are heartfelt and wholly believable: Shane Meadows would be proud.
All of which elevates ‘Attack the Block’ from fun creature-feature throwback to this year’s unmissable British movie, and Cornish from just another geek-turned-filmmaker to a major talent: if he can strike a similar balance between sympathy, insight and crowd-pleasing thrills in future projects, his status is assured.
‘Attack the Block’ isn’t perfect – the aliens are a tad unremarkable and the final blowout never hits the frenzied peak it might have – but it’s hard to imagine British audiences having more fun in a cinema this year. Now, who’s going to fund the Adam Buxton movie?
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